Hi all! This was our 6th trip to SXM, but it had been 3 years since our last one due to some intervening visits to Jamaica and Belize. First of all, we stayed at Club O & I'm completely lazy so I have no pictures.... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

We arrived just after the really bad week of wind & rain in early December so although we had a couple of showers during our week I felt very lucky, plus the whole island was incredibly green and beautiful! We rented from Kenny's and Lesley was right there to get us our car and send us on our way. Great service from being quick to respond to emails to greeting us at the airport. Thanks, Lesley, and we'll see you next year.

We traveled with a group of 8 and we stayed at Club O this time instead of a villa and I'm SOLD on it for the next trip as well. Everyone in the group can book their own accommodations (versus me trying to herd the cats and get everyone's dates to line up for a villa). We used Jim Ruos to book and it was great knowing that I had someone I could contact if I had any problems. I absolutely loved the fact that we tagged our chairs on the first day and they were ours for the week. I've been a bit of a beach nomad in the past, but I guess I've *ahem* "matured" to the point that I like to mosey on out to my chair in the morning rather than hopping in a car to drive somewhere. We parked next to the Perch and I think we were there for happy hour everyday. I recommend Willy's hurricanes (and plan on keeping them both for yourself during happy hour <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />) We stayed in the mini-suites and loved the arrangement of all the buildings around the central courtyard. We dragged our chairs from room to room depending on who in our group was providing drinks and snacks each evening. Met lots of our neighbors and generally had an excellent time! Best bad idea of the week was Scott's insistence on bringing a plastic collapsible container with a spigot. We filled it with rum punch on day 1, stored it in the freezer every night and brought it to the beach for rum punch slushies each day! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Groovin.gif" alt="" />

Definitely one of the trip highlights was Peggy & Paul's Nude Cruise around the island. We had Cecilia instead of Peggy, but she was a most excellent first mate and Paul was a fabulous captain and host. It had been very stormy the night before so the water wasn't great for snorkeling, but the ride was INCREDIBLE! He warned us when we arrived that the water was going to be very rough until we got around to the other side of the island and WOW he didn't lie. As soon as we got out of Oyster Pond it was like riding a roller coaster!!! So fun! It was definitely an easier ride in the back of the boat, but the front was crazy! It was all big swells until we got to Tintamarre, then we took a nice break, hung out on the beach and had some drinks, headed to Pinel and played in the water, buzzed Orient beach, headed to Happy Bay for lunch from Danny, laid on the beach some more, then down to Maho beach to watch some planes land. After that we rounded the south end of the island past Phillipsburg and got back into the roller coaster swells for the last bit of the trip back to Oyster Pond. Drinks were plentiful as were the snacks and lunch at Danny's. Best part of this trip is that it is a powerboat and it is so fast that you can round the whole island with PLENTY of time to make extended stops at many locations. Everybody absolutely loved it!

Other highlights:
We woke to overcast skies and rain on our second day so we decided to take our friends to the grocery store. It was their first trip to the island so we wanted to show them a couple of our favorites and decided we would hit the grocery store after a bit of an island tour....by the time we were headed back from the tour, Le Grande Marche was closed <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />. However we did make it to Karakter, everything was excellent, but I have to single out the bacon wrapped plantains & dates as being the BEST; then Sunset Bar & Grill for free drinks and watching the planes land; a trip over to Baie Rouge which has always been a favorite of ours; and then back to SMYC for the 5:00 bridge opening where we watched one lone catamaran come in, lol! Not what I was hoping for, but they were having a Christmas party and raffle for the youth sailors so that was fun. Luckily the little store at Club O is very well stocked, so no one was too sad to not be able to get our shopping done. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

We ate at the lolo's twice and they were excellent. Also had dinner at Orient Village once, but now I can't remember the name, it was something like Le Pit Bistro, lol, I know that isn't it but its close. Great service there, btw!

I had planned Captain Oliver's as the special night out for the whole group because I had read that one of the owners from Tabba Khady was the manager there, and we got kind of a mixed bag. I think about half of the group loved what they got and the other half, (which unfortunately included me, lol)were sad. The sashimi that my husband got was excellent, as was the pasta carbonara. I got a chicken curry dish that really didn't have much flavor at all and wow, the chicken was overcooked & dry. One of the group sent back a steak, but we got a big plate of ice cream to share amongst the table and we polished off the after dinner banana rum so everyone left pretty happy, and really my husband and I were the only ones that had eaten at Tabba Khady, so the other 8 didn't really know what they missed. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

Oh and when we left we had the ridiculous long delay on the tarmac that many others have reported. It was blamed on too much air traffic for ATC in our case. We got VERY lucky and our flight from ATL->SEA was delayed so we actually made it although we had to do the stereotypical run through the airport and Scott stood on the jetway so they wouldn't close the door before I got there (he is a faster runner than me <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />) I could go on a long rant about ATL customs & immigration, but it will just aggravate me all over again, so I'll just say it was ridiculous.

Headed back the same dates next year!